Michael Jackson...respect?

So what is everyone's opinion on whether or not there will ever be an ounce of respect for Michael Jackon? I mean, will there ever be a moment again when we aren't ashamed to dust off our copy of Thiller and pop it in for a few spins?

I can listen to the music no problem at all - hit any club in any city and you're likely to hear Billy Jean or something by him still...
Think he'll always have some respect, in that regard.
The rest of the crap, well...I try to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he dude is more than a bit creepy.

I guess his music isn't horrible for background noise, and I like the guest shots with Slash and Steve Stevens ('ole Chrysanthymum-head) but, frankly, I'd rather drink urine from a shoe than be trapped in a room with the guy. Yech.

So, I broke into the palace
With a sponge and a rusty spanner
She said : "Eh, I know you, and you cannot sing"
I said : "That's nothing - you should hear me play piano"

He'll always get respect by those who are into the history of pop music and pop culture. The man practically owned the airwaves for about three years, and there was no entertainer even close to his superstar status. Sell-out concerts, number-one hits, zillions in ablum sales, Pepsi commercials, Disney contracts, etc.

But in the end, he's a tragic footnote, and based on his performance in the past ten years, he deserves about as much respect as former pop-superstar Cat Stevens who abandoned reality to lend support to Iran's Ayatolah Komanie and the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie. When people switch off thier brains, they deserve disrespect.

Some of the Jackson 5 material is classic. ABC is an amazing pop song.

I've never owned a MJ album tho. In his heyday you didn't need to, it was everywhere, whether you wanted to hear it or not. I had heard enough really early on.

I'll never want to play a MJ album. But if you want to listen to Thriller, knock yourself out. There's no reason to be ashamed of listening to anything. Just because you listen to a Michael Jackson album doesn't make you a child molester. Listening to Clapton doesn't make you a junkie. Listening to Elton John doesn't make you gay, listening to Billy Joel doesn't make you a boorish drunk. It's just music. Enjoy yourself.

Michael Jackson, solo and with the Jackson 5, is responsible for what is in my view (and I'm not expressing too radical of an opinion here) some of the greatest pop music ever made. Those Jackson 5 singles and much of the material on Michael's first two solo albums have few peers. Hello?: "I Want You Back", "ABC", "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough", "Billie Jean", etc. And there are some flashes of greatness in the later stuff even. I really try to separate my views of the art from that of the artist -- some people I know have a harder time with that than I seem to, so I can see the contrary view.

You haven't lived until you've seen ...oh, what was her name? I forget...wasn't her real name, anyway...where was I? Oh yeah, Smooth Criminal I think it was. And she could do that loose body wave thing...(drifts off)...

You haven't lived until you've seen ...oh, what was her name? I forget...wasn't her real name, anyway...where was I? Oh yeah, Smooth Criminal I think it was. And she could do that loose body wave thing...(drifts off)...

I can just imagine Honey dancing to Heal the World, or Luscious performing to Remember The Time...

I don't know what you guys are talking about. I bought MJ's last three records. Let's see there was Justified, then Goodies, and most recently FutureSex/LoveSounds. For some reason the liberal Hollywood elite insist on pretending that Ciara and Timberlake made those records. But they can't fool me. I know an MJ record when I hear one.

Mike might be flying his freak flag with all he's got, but Smooth Criminal has enough funk (or "smelly jelly" in creepy MJ speak) to make Chuck Manson look like an honorary Beach Boy.

Thanks for making this post a highly interesting read. It's always a cool thing to see something you start turn into an thread full of some fine reading.

I listen to alot of MJ mostly because it's incredibly well recorded material and makes my speakers sing like crazy. I have the gold HIStory CD set and dang....Billy Jean never sounded better!!!! One of my best friends came over and I played it for him and the snap of the drum beat almost knocked him over...he couldn't believe it!!!

Listening to the MJ music I have can give me a lot of pleasure. His pop music has to be rated somewhere up there with the best ever recorded. The music is separate from the "man". I wouldn't let my pet monkey hang out with him.

I don't know -- James Brown had some pretty smooth moves. There's a lot of carp on YouTube if you search on James Brown, but the opening sequence to this gives you a taste of his abilities. Methinks that if there was no James Brown, there wouldn't have been no Michael Jackson.

Also, did you ever catch Prince in the middle of "Little Red Corvette"? Admittedly, it's only for a couple seconds, but they're a couple of mindblowing seconds. He makes it look so easy -- like one of Jimi's licks between lines of a song.

L, even Hammer was a better dancer -- MHO (although, admittedly, a little worse with his finances -- we'll see if that's the case in the long run).

I don't know -- James Brown had some pretty smooth moves. There's a lot of carp on YouTube if you search on James Brown, but the opening sequence to this gives you a taste of his abilities. Methinks that if there was no James Brown, there wouldn't have been no Michael Jackson.

Also, did you ever catch Prince in the middle of "Little Red Corvette"? Admittedly, it's only for a couple seconds, but they're a couple of mindblowing seconds. He makes it look so easy -- like one of Jimi's licks between lines of a song.

L, even Hammer was a better dancer -- MHO (although, admittedly, a little worse with his finances -- we'll see if that's the case in the long run).

I saw Prince on Saturday Night Live last season. He laid down some licks from his last CD that blew me away. I knew he could write sing and play. I didn't know he could PLAY!!!!

I believe THRILLER is a great pop album and that MJ has done nothing since.
I also believe that any "respect" of that same album should be targeted toward Quincy Jones; MJ was simply one of the tools Jones utilized to get the work done.

I "respect" MJ for his abibilty to perform -- singing and dancing.

As for his personal life, I think he is a sick piece of shyt; I'll bet $100 that the guy was sexually abused as a child.